Clay is messy!

You can't see the half of it, but I am a mess! I've been working on some pottery this morning and have decided that clay is very messy. I need to wash all the towels I have ruined doing this too. And then take a nice long shower before I go to town.

I took all the tools and buckets off so I could wash the wheel down real good.

All clean again! It just feels good to work in a clean space and have clean tools again.

I can not make 2 of the same things. It's SO frustrating to me. I would love to at least make 2 mugs or 2 bowls as alike as possible. I know no 2 of anything is very much alike in pottery. But I would like to at least make 2 things the same size or shape.

So the first thing I made this morning flopped. Bad. I had at least 3 pounds of clay. It turned into a little tiny bowl after I had to cut most of the clay off. The bowl on the right in back. Then I was going to try to make a tall mug. It turned into a yarn bowl. Then tried to make another yarn bowl. It turned into the bowl with the spout. I'll add a handle later after I trim it. I did get 2 tea cups almost the same size though.

And got pretty close  with these 3 sets of 2 mugs. Maybe one day I will make a set of 4 mugs that look similar. Just maybe?

I have not really felt like making any pottery in a few weeks. I did make 10 little soap dishes though. Took them in to get fired Saturday. Can't wait to see how they look  when finished. I don't really know how I want to glaze them.

I think I am in need of another milk goat. All of a sudden, I have people actually wanting to buy milk now. After all these years of having goats and only a few people getting milk, now I have about 6 people wanting milk. And someone wants buttermilk and cheese too. There is not a lot left over for the pigs. So a friend had borrowed my buck 5 months ago. One of her does had a doe kid last week and she rejected her. So I asked if I could get the doe to milk. I am talking more about this with her today. She has another due soon too. That would put me going through winter with a doe in milk. I really need to get certified to sell milk now. That would be a good thing, right?

In the garden

Some of the tomatoes I've been harvesting the past few days. Just a lot of different kinds. My favorites are the little orange Sungold cherry tomatoes and the Orange Valencia. They are so good.

I have no idea why these pictures are so huge.

My water was $75 for this last bill. Good grief! I knew it would be high because I am watering every day. But $75? Yikes.

But I just have to water these flowers. For the bees. And all the butterflies and other insects. It's always busy out here.

This is my biggest Mexican sunflower so far. These just popped up from last year. There are several others too. But this one gets watered more. And the pretty cosmos. I love these flowers!

I'm also watering the 2 rows of green beans with sunflowers down the middle of the rows. And some of the squash and zucchini too. And the tomatoes. And of course the blueberry and fig and elderberry bushes. And the mints and herbs.

I just heard on the news that N. Carolina is flooding. And Iowa. What is going on with our weather lately? We are in a serious drought here and other places are flooding?

Knitting caddy.

Last night, I decided to make a knitting caddy. This is what I came up with. I haven't done any sewing since my class a few months back. I had to re thread my bobbin and kind of messed it up. Had to figure out why it wouldn't spin after some thread broke the first time. There was thread stuck around the little post under the bobbin. So got it all out and it worked.

I really like it. It holds all of my knitting needles. I need to cut out one row so I can have a bigger place to put scissors and other things.

And it just rolls right up! This will take up so much less room and I won't have to take everything out of my knitting bag to find something! I need to get a little piece of fabric and make a tie for it now. But I love it!

Outside milking.

It has been SO hot in the milk room lately. I dread going in to milk. I am dripping with sweat when it's all done. The goats don't even want to go in there. It's literally like a sauna.

So, this morning, I got my husband to help move the 2 stanchions out in the goat yard, under the trees. I will be milking there til winter. We might need to put a lean-to over it. Just in case it might rain. But here they will be til it gets cooler.

And maybe the girls will finish eating their feed now.

I cannot remember it ever being this hot in that room before. I can't remember ever having to water the gardens before either. But I am watering nearly every day. And have been since the beginning of June. First big water bill was about $46. Can't wait to see what this next one will be. I just hate to see all my plants suffering so. I am even watering the apple trees.

What's it like where you live right now? Doing a lot of watering too?

Really?

So I am out in the garden, watering the tomatoes tonight. I noticed one of the plants was almost stripped of leaves. I just wondered what would have done that. The I spotted this huge guy on another plant. Can you see it? Right in the middle of this picture, upside down.

It's a stinkin' tomato horn worm. I have NEVER seen one or had any on my tomatoes. Ever. But this is the year of the Japanese beetles. And squash bugs. And a drought. So now tomato horn worms. Why not? Join the party!

So this guy will be chicken breakfast in the morning.

I did get to pick some tomatoes! Those little orange ones are the best tomato ever!  Like eating candy. They are good! And apparently I got some Romas.

I think I am giving up on the garden til fall. I have had enough of this. I noticed today that a lot of my zinnias looked burnt. I couldn't figure out why. Then realized it was from the Dawn dish soap spray I've been using to kill the beetles with. It's frying my plants! It's also doing the same thing to the squash leaves where I've been spraying the squash bugs. So yeah, I have had enough of this summer gardening.

In the garden. Friends. Chloe. And sheep.

The zinnias had lots of visitors this morning. I am so glad I have my new phone. It's so much easier to carry than my camera. And I always have my phone with me.

I saw this gorgeous huge butterfly on some zinnias and just had to get a picture of it. Isn't it just beautiful?

And this bee. Just full of pollen, all over the legs. I love seeing all the life out there/

And look at this! Ripe 'maters! I was shocked to see these. They are on some tomato plants that I have sorely neglected. But they are bearing fruit for us. I am thankful for them.

These are on a plant that is down in the lower garden. I do water these at least every other day. They are all full of tomatoes. All kinds of tomatoes. There are tiny little yellow cherry tomatoes, Romas, some heirlooms that are purple and some others. A friend gave them all to me so I really don't know what all is out there.  But this one is huge!

And my friend Stephanie found this and thought of me. I am always saying this about my alpacas. It says cute but weird but cute. Too funny! They really are though. It's perfect. This will go on the wall in my studio.

And yesterday, I took Chloe to get her hair done. She wanted it dyed and cut. I love this! She really wanted that pretty purple color, but her hair is so dark so would have had to bleach it. And it would only last about 4 weeks. And it's so damaging to hair. So she settled on this reddish color. He put the color on first. She wanted a purple color on the ends. But all that was cut out. He forgot to ask how she wanted her hair cut. But I really love this on her. She sure has the face for short hair.

She really likes it too. She has always taken a picture with her to the beauty shops and never ever has got it cut just like the picture. But this is very close to what she showed the guy. He did a great job. He loved it too.

And yesterday, I opened the chicken run and let the sheep in to eat all the tall huge weeds in there. They did a great job! It was like a jungle in there and hard to see the chickens. Especially the 3 little babes.

Cleaning up

I noticed that my soaps were starting to look a bit ragged. So I brought them all to my studio yesterday after the market. I took all the old wrappings off and re-wrapped them. Cleaned out the boxes. I'll go tomorrow and get new card stock for labels. And I want to get some chalk paint to paint on the fronts of the boxes and tin thingies too. I think that would look better than a piece of paper telling what they are.

I also put waxed paper underneath the soaps. Just looks better and cleaner too.

I also needed more plantain salve. So made 12 more little jars and a sample one. I need to make more calendula salve too, but I need more olive oil. I was going to go to Costco today, but they are closed. I need more lye and shea butter too. So many things I need to get so I can make more.

I am hearing fireworks from the people up the road. I was hoping they wouldn't shoot any off because it's so dry here. Someone was last night, over the hill. I had to stand outside with the sheep and alpacas til they were done. Poor animals are scared to death.  There was a fire up on the mountain today. It's so scary. I heard on the news today that 2 out of 5 house fires are started by fireworks. Isn't that crazy?  I sure can think of a lot of things I could spend my money on.

Speaking of spending money. My Trooper started acting up yesterday on the way up the mountain to the new farmers market I'm going to. I thought it was going to stop altogether, but I put it down in 3rd and it kept going. I made it to market. I called my husband and told him to meet me at the transmission shop in the valley after market. It drove fine all the way there in 3rd. Soon as I'd put it in drive, it started making crazy noises. So it's over there til I find out what's wrong with it. I've had 2 transmissions already put in it. And some other work done to it several months ago. Hope it's nothing serious. My grand daughter was cleaning it the other day. Maybe she pushed a button or something. I'm hoping.

Hope you all had a nice day today. Happy birthday America!